Philadelphia Eagles training camp, 2015 Military Appreciation Day
God, Guns and Gays. Illegal immigration. These are Culture War issues that Donald Trump and Republicans are pushing to stir up Republican voter interest as the 2018 midterm elections approach. The latest Culture War topic is Trump’s revocation of his White House invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles football team, after Trump heard that some Eagles team members were planning to skip the event over political disagreements with Trump. Moreover, Fox News falsely ran photos of Eagles players kneeling to pray (approved behavior by the GOP) with captions about kneeling in protest (such as in support of Black Lives Matter, a protest against police violence which is disapproved behavior by Republicans). Fox had to apologize hours later for its misleading photos and captions.
The Philadelphia Eagles story follows closely on the heels of the Roseanne Barr story, where Barr’s new television show was canceled after Barr used racist language on Twitter (along with a phony religious attack) to insult African-American former President Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. When TV comedienne Samantha Bee then used a female anatomical epithet against Ivanka Trump, the right was able to play the “whatabout” game to compare the two.
These Culture War conflicts serve the Republican Party, as they both fire up the party’s base and distract from the Constitutional crisis that Donald Trump is creating over the federal investigation into Russia‘s interference in the 2016 elections. Therefore, Democrats should be careful about which topics they engage on, and to what degree.
Some Culture War issues are undoubtedly important for Democrats. For example, on gun violence, the vast majority of Americans agree with Democratic positions, e.g., that there should be stricter rules about things like universal background checks. Likewise, Democrats can take a strong position that, while they support police enforcement in communities (remember, it was a Democratic idea, fought by Republicans, to put 100,000 community police on America’s streets), excessive police violence against people of color is morally repulsive, a civil rights violation, and undermines crime prevention by losing people’s trust.
There are other non-Culture War issues to fight, however. Healthcare may be first among them, and again presents opportunities for Democrats to highlight their values. Likewise, climate change is a growing issue — just ask folks in coastal areas hit by increased flooding. Democrats must spend time on these issues that impact our lives, and not simply chase shiny objects tossed out by Republicans.
Photo by felicito rustique, jr., used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/UWRkTL
